For those who knew local musician Peter Brice it came as a great shock to learn of his untimely death in late July this year. Peter was charismatic and well-loved in Rye and beyond, and Rye Arts Festival held him in high esteem. He was director of classical music for the festival from 2009 to 2017.
He brought many exciting and sometimes challenging acts to delight audiences and he will be remembered fondly and with gratitude for his amazing contribution to the festival. He loved to support talented young musicians who were just starting out on their journey in the musical world and his legacy will go on through the newly-established Peter Brice Memorial Fund for Music.
Peter wore many hats during his highly colourful life including working for forty years as a very well-respected soft-fruit producer. The farm which Peter ran with his brother Simon at Higham in north Kent, was highly renowned for producing top quality fruit, and they not only won many top awards, but a raspberry variety, “Brice” was named after them. Peter was also a leading board member of the Apple & Pear Development Council. He was a magistrate and also a county standard tennis player. These are just a few of the many roles he carried out with great aplomb during his eighty splendid years.
He had many great loves including his family, his grandchildren, his music, charities that he supported, travel and so many more – too many to list.
On Saturday, November 4 a “sort of concert” was held to celebrate his life in Maidstone. Musicians had travelled from far and wide including from abroad to take part in the event. It was amusingly announced to be a concert of three halves with ice cream and Prosecco (more of Peter’s loves) to be served in the two intervals.
Sandwiched in between the ice cream was an amazing array of talent of deeply-moving music and some light amusing pieces. Martin Bruce conducted the specially assembled concert choir with elan, driven by a genuine wish to make sure that Peter had the send-off he deserved.
After the rousing start of Gabrielli’s Jubilate Deo, Molly Morton and Arthur Brice, young members of the family, were brave enough to sing to a packed church a setting of AA Milne’s How sweet to be a Cloud which certainly provoked a few tears from the audience.
The concert was too long to list every piece so here are a few highlights: One More Day from Les Misérables was thrillingly sung by a group of exceedingly talented soloists accompanied by the concert choir (for a full list of musicians please see the photos in the gallery below). Rannveig Káradóttir, who had flown in from Germany, performed Tatiana’s Letter scene from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and positively owned the stage for ten minutes, receiving very warm applause.
The third half contained some wonderfully funny songs including Big Black Cadillac, music written by Peter, and Seven Bullocks, a verbatim newspaper report set to Anglican chant by Peter Tranchell, Peter Brice’s tutor at Cambridge.
Bumble, Peter’s wife, orchestrated the event in pure Bumble style and I am sure that Peter watched and applauded her brilliant send-off. A light went out in Rye and further afield when Peter died but his memory lives on the hearts and memories of all who knew him.
Image Credits: Kt bruce , kt bruce .